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Journal and News Scan
May 8, 2020
Submitted by: Emily Robinson
This original article compares the outcome of sleeve lobectomy compared to conventional lobectomy in the treatment of patients with lung cancer. Inci et al. investigated 187 patients who underwent sleeve lobectomy and compared it to 568 patients who underwent conventional lobectomy. They found no difference in safety end-points or mid-term follow-up regarding the two different groups.
May 8, 2020
Submitted by: Emily Robinson
Dong et al developed a score to predict renal failure after surgery for Stanford type A dissection. This score includes age, BMI, white blood count, perioperative hemoglobin levels, CPB duration, and renal malperfusion. The score derives from a retrospective analysis of 326 patients from the author’s institution and validated in a group of more than 100 patients from a separate institution. The receiver operating curve proves a good prediction of perioperative renal failure by the new score.
May 7, 2020
Submitted by: Emily Farkas
Access to pacemakers and defibrillators is problematic in places with limited resources. A multinational program was initiated in 1983 to provide tested and resterilized pacemakers and defibrillators to underserved nations; a prospective registry was established in 2003. The incidence of infection or device-related death at two years was 2.0%, an incidence that did not differ significantly from that seen among matched control patients with new devices in Canada.
May 6, 2020
Submitted by: Jessica Luc
This article describes recommendations from the North American leadership in regards to the safe reintroduction of cardiovascular services during the COVID-19 pandemic including, but not limited to, ethical considerations, the importance of collaboration amongst public health officials and cardiovascular specialties, and protection of healthcare workers. In addition, they include detailed recommendations stratified by the level of response customized for institutions and guidance on how to reserve capacity for potential re-surgence of COVID-19.
May 6, 2020
Submitted by: Aristotle Protopapas
Use of anatomic abbreviations instead of numbers seems pro-intuitive ...
May 3, 2020
Submitted by: Edward Savage
This is a research letter the looks at the investment that CMS has made in developing quality measures. It points out the limited value of many of them and discusses recommendations for implementation and evaluation of these measures.
May 1, 2020
Submitted by: Emily Robinson
This original article covers the topic of surgical ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF) during coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG). The presented data from the Polish national registry of cardiac surgery procedures includes more than 7800 patients with underlying AF undergoing CABG. Just above 4% of patients received concomitant surgical ablation and underwent a 1:3 propensity matching. The results showed no concerns regarding the safety of the procedure, but a significantly improved long-term survival of patients undergoing surgical ablation compared to CABG alone.
April 25, 2020
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
A timely article addressing common questions related to the COVID pandemic, particularly regarding preoperative decision-making for pediatric/congenital heart surgery.
April 24, 2020
Submitted by: Aristotle Protopapas
Interesting metanalytic review on the effect of binary gender in mammals.
April 22, 2020
Submitted by: Emily Farkas
"We were all worried about the availability of ventilators but actually you've got to have enough people to run them." Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Joel Dunning, decided to do something about it by redeploying as an ICU Nurse for the NHS, setting a great example for all clinicians being asked to consider roles outside of the comfort zone. He discusses his decision and experience as a surgeon-turned-ICU nurse during the COVID-19 pandemic in this Medscape UK interview.